


Sunflowers in December

by JoRaskoph



Series: Obliviator-verse [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: HPFT, Gen, New Beginnings, Obliviation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:55:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23328871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoRaskoph/pseuds/JoRaskoph
Summary: It was the hardest day George Weasley had had in five years, but it was one of the best days the life of seventy-three-year-old Danielle Hamilton, the day she took an opportunity she hadn’t believed she would have any more.Dedicated to PaulaTheProcaryote, who loved Danielle first, and to TreacleTart who is an inspirational taker of awesome opportunities.Written for The Great Collab of 2018-19.
Relationships: Angelina Johnson/George Weasley
Series: Obliviator-verse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1677661
Kudos: 5





	Sunflowers in December

When an owl tapped against his bedroom window around nine on a Saturday morning, George Weasley didn’t suspect that this would become the hardest day he had had in the last five years.

Despite the extraordinary circumstances of his adolescence, he’d managed to carve out a quite comfortable life for himself. No, George had nothing to complain about and unlike during his teenage years, he was no longer prepared to deal with disaster at every moment.

Angelina and he had just moved into the new flat, which had two extra rooms. It was a fact they didn’t discuss, but these two extra rooms meant that, hypothetically, they would have space, were their family to grow… if they wanted to. One day.

He spent his workdays in the shop, which was more successful than ever, his weekends with the most beautiful witch of her age, who had miraculously agreed to marry him, and on Mondays, he went to Grimmauld place to pay a visit first to the very lively number twelve and then quiet number thirteen.

It was a weirdly predictable life. Ten years before, nobody, not even George himself, would have pictured him like this, content with doing the same every week and only very rarely turning friends and family into man-sized canaries. But he was.

That was how, when an owl tapped against his bedroom window, George rolled over in bed and left getting up and receiving the letter to Angelina.

Seven minutes later, the two of them were up and in their hallway, fully dressed and almost ready to leave.

Moving through a murky haze, like trapped in a nightmare, George found that his shoes weren’t cooperating as they should. His fingers were shaking and it took a few tries to even untie the laces.

“Do we really have to?”, he whined, noting distantly that he sounded almost like four-year-old Lily Luna.

Angelina, who had just stepped out onto the street, turned back and rolled her eyes at him. “Really? Do we need to go over this again?”

Her annoyance was half real, but he could see in the way she had shifted her weight onto one foot that she was prepared to give him the time and explanation he needed.

“Just one more time”, he sighed, having given up on his shoes for the moment and just looking at Angelina with a half hopeful look. This didn’t sound real, maybe it was all a misunderstanding. His siblings wouldn’t have been allowed to see him this needy, but with her it was different. “Please tell me one more time why this is best for Danielle.”

Angelina leaned into the doorframe and recounted patiently: “So you know that too many curses can permanently damage someone’s mind?”

George nodded.

“That’s the reason we do a routine check each time before we obliviate someone.”

George nodded again, slowly, feeling the onset of nausea. “Okay, and when Albus had that tantrum and his accidental magic sent him apparating into Danielle’s backyard …”

“After Albus apparated into her backyard, Curt from my office ran the checks on Danielle and unfortunately she had all the warning signs. It’s not even really surprising if you think about it … I mean, since the kids have been around, she’s had to be obliviated what - twice a year?”

Feeling unsteady on his legs, George recollected the past year, mentally counting.

There had been that time in December. James Junior had let the snow melt and flowers bloom on their Monday visit. It had been quite the sight, Danielle had liked it too. But of course, she had had to be obliviated for that. Sunflowers just didn’t bloom in muggle gardens in December.

The rest of winter had been gratifyingly uneventful on the obliviating front, but then spring had brought two consecutive incidents. One had involved an oversized caterpillar - little Albus had just liked to look at it so much and it had grown to satisfy his curiosity - and the other an ice cream sundae that kept refilling itself.

That made three.

And finally the apparating incident today, in June. “It’s the fourth time in seven months.”

Angelina leaned inside to rub his arm, a sympathetic look in her eyes.

George knew what this meant. It made him feel like throwing up, but his weekly visits were obviously part of the problem. He often brought one or both of the boys with him, when he visited his literally oldest friend. It was a chance for him to see his nephews more and Danielle loved having them over too.

“So what does that mean? I can’t take the boys to see her anymore?”

“Oh, George! It’s not just the boys - living next door to the Potter’s is just … something’s bound to happen at some point and Danielle doesn’t have another two obliviations in her.”

“Just the one?”

“Just one more, and then never again. So she needs to forget everything about Grimmauld Place and live somewhere a lot more muggle. You don’t have to come …”, Angelina was still stroking his hand, trying to give him the time he needed, but her hand was still on the doorframe. She was obviously impatient to leave. It had been pure chance and a huge dose of luck that her colleague had even remembered their friendship with the old lady and notified her before obliviating Danielle and sending her off to live Merlin knew where.

George picked up his shoes again, this time more focused. “No, I’m coming. I’m coming.”

It was Angelina’s colleague Curt who opened the door when they arrived at number thirteen. “Is she here?”, George blurted, his chest tight with the sudden worry that they might be too late already.

“Is that you, George?”

The familiar raspy voice came from the kitchen and George was already shoving past Curt without giving him a second glance. “Danielle! Are you alright?” He had her in his arms before he could even feel awkward about hugging a woman who was neither Angelina nor family.

Danielle allowed the hug for a few moments before she resolutely brushed him off and bustled over to the stove. “I’ll just fix you a cup of tea and then we'll talk.”

George was left standing in the middle of the kitchen, staring at her back under the oversized knitted jacket. Her white curls were carefully pinned into a bun on the back of her head. There was soil on her skirt, she must have been gardening when Albus …

Still with her back to him, she asked: “Tell me, George, what do you have to do with this strange business of children appearing out of thin air?”

“Well, you know …”

There was an excuse at the tip of his tongue, he was so used to making up explanations for all the irregular occurrences, but then he stopped himself. This was not the time for little white lies.

George cleared his throat and started again: “Here’s the thing, Danielle, I’m a wizard. Please don’t have a heart attack!”

His voice went up with the last sentence, all of a sudden he was very aware of Danielle’s age and the fact that Muggles didn’t age the same as wizarding folk. How old did they usually grow to be, a hundred and ten? Twenty? He should have taken muggle studies, then he would know stuff like this.

“Smooth, Weasley. Real smooth”, Angelina deadpanned from behind him.

“God, woman, no need to give me a heart attack”, George sighed, acting exasperated, but pulling her against him. It was good to have her close when things were difficult like this.

Turning around with cattle in hand, Danielle gave them an indulgent look, before gesturing for them to sit down. “Well, come on, you two. We don’t have all day!”

“You don’t seem shocked,” George observed, almost feeling cheated. He’d been prepared to explain everything, to console Danielle if the news of the wizarding world had proven to be too overwhelming for her. He hadn’t expected her to ignore his great big revelation.

Over their teacups, Angelina and Danielle exchanged a look.

“Oh, I was shocked. Two hours ago, when little Albus materialised out of thin air in front of my eyes. I was more than shocked. Then that nice man knocked on my door and told me that magic was real. I was speechless.”

Danielle fixed him with that look she had, the one that always made him feel as if he just said something very stupid in Transfiguration class. His stomach dropped every time, but then the corners of her eyes crinkled and it felt okay again. Like being mocked by a good friend. Or a brother.

He opened his mouth to contradict her, but she shushed him with a gesture.

“But after all of that, finding out that you are in on this whole conspiracy - that’s not surprising.”

They shared a shaky smile.

“Oh, I can’t believe you!”, George didn’t know what else to say. He had never met anyone else as cheeky as her. (Had only ever had one once he’d always known.)

Angelina lifted her teacup to blow over the hot liquid, politely ignoring the fact that George was completely absorbed by looking at Danielle, trying to commit her to memory as best he could. The sound of her voice, the papery skin of her hands - he didn’t want to forget any of it.

“So, where can you two darlings magic me off to? Paris? The Maldives?”, Danielle asked in a conversational tone and Angelina almost choked on her tea.

“Excuse me?”

“Well, I’m not getting any younger. I understood that your people have been messing with my head so much I have to leave this house. This is where I have lived since I had my Simon at eighteen. I’ve lived here with Ernie until he died. And if I have to leave, I want to go somewhere worth seeing. I’d say your kind owe me a good compensation for having to leave all this behind.”

Her eyes were bright with excitement taking at least a decade off her age. A huge weight fell off George’s chest. He and Angelina exchanged a look.

“Well, it’s not as if they can say ‘Everyone else will want compensation now’ … Give me a minute, I’ll run over to the Potters and call my head of department!”

“I have a phone in the living room …” Danielle offered, but Angelina shook her head at her while she got up off her chair.

She laid a hand on the old woman’s shoulder before she strode out of the door. “I’ll be right back, Danielle!”

She left a puzzled, but hopeful George to blink at Danielle. “So, the Maldives?”

“Oh, you know, it’s not like I got to travel when I was young. I got married at seventeen and had Simon at eighteen. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my two boys to bits, but it didn’t leave time to see the world.”

“And you think that now is the time?”

“Absolutely. What do I have left to keep me here?”, she made a sweeping gesture around the kitchen, including the faded curtains, the wallpapers, her teapot and the small window.

“If I move out, I won’t have the garden anymore, and it’s not as if Simon and his kids are queuing up to visit … no, if I leave here, I want to go places.”

“You really thought this through, didn’t you?”

Danielle got up and scuttled over to a cupboard, from which she retrieved a large stack of papers. She set them onto the table in front of George and he could see they were travelling catalogues.

Wordlessly, Danielle flipped through the pages, showing him the pictures. From time to time she stopped at a particular picture and tapped it with her gnarly finger: The Great Wall of China, a desert in the sunset, tourists crossing a river on the backs of elephants, …

“I always wanted to go, but the time never seemed right. But if you tell me magic is real, I can certainly go see the world before I die.”

George shook his head, opening his mouth to tell her she wasn’t that old, but Danielle patted his hand and gave him a smile.

“It’s okay, I’m going to miss you too.”

When Angelina returned, the two unalike friends were sipping their tea and browsing Danielle’s catalogues. Both of them got up and looked at her expectantly.

“Okay, Danielle, I have everything here. The ministry have transferred funds to this muggle solicitor and she’s going to help you go wherever you want to go. It’s under your husband’s name and will come up as his legacy to you, given to you with instructions to be used to travel the world. First stop the Maldives.”

“What a generous husband you had, Danielle”, George was grinning, but found Danielle looking back at him with trepidation.

“I’m really going?”, her voice was small.

Angelina was with her in two strides, hugging Danielle tightly to her chest. The old woman was a full head smaller and fit easily under her chin. Angelina was rubbing her back in circles.

“You are, if you want to go. We could always get you a spot in a nice supervised unit for elderly people, with lots of other people your age to keep you company …?”

Danielle scoffed at the suggestion and mumbled, almost back to true from: “Watch your mouth, young lady!”

“Do you want us to help you pack?”

“I am packed”, Danielle briskly extricated herself from Angelina’s hug and pointed into the hallway where a small red suitcase stood.

And so, on a bright June day in London, George and Angelina drove seventy-three-year-old Danielle Hamilton to Heathrow. The old woman was excited like a teenager who was going on her first adventure alone, and in a way it was true.

After both of them had hugged her goodbye, Angelina whispered “Obliviate” to Danielle one last time and the two watched with tears in their eyes as a little red suitcase was screened at security and a little old lady excitedly chatted to the security officer about her plans to travel the world.

It was the hardest day George Weasley had had in five years, but it was one of the best days the life of Danielle Hamilton, the day she took an opportunity she hadn’t believed she would have any more.

**Author's Note:**

> If you leave a comment or review, I'll forever think you're an awesome person.


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